Speak of Home
by When In Doubt Smile
Summary: Clint would really like to understand what Natasha is saying when she speaks in Russian, so he asks for lessons. Those lessons turn out to be the lessons of a lifetime. (Semi-companion piece to "Thanks For Picking Up".)


**Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or the picture or anything else you can think of...**

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**A couple quick and important things: First, I don't speak Russian, so every Russian word you see below is straight off Google Translate. Let me know if I messed something up and I will do my best to fix it. Second, everywhere you see an star (*) it means that the Russian to English translation is at the bottom in a little index-type thing. If that turns out to be confusing or too much work, let me know in a review and I will figure out a different way to do things. Enjoy the story!**

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Speak of Home (Or Говоря о доме)

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Clint is watching Natasha train the new recruits when he notices just how often she talks in Russian. Sure he had noticed it before. When he would bring her hot chocolate in the morning (she was starting an anti-coffee revolution), she would say "спасибо", which Clint could only assume meant "thank you". If someone asked her a question sometimes she would just answer with a nod or a shake of her head and a Russian word. When she was in a particularly good mood, sometimes Clint would find her practicing ballet and singing a Russian song. But it wasn't until one of the newbies shot a light fixture and Natasha started ranting in her native language, that Clint realized just how much Natasha said that he didn't understand.

By the time Natasha is making her way over to Clint muttering, "Какой ужас*," over and over again, Clint has decided that he would really like to know what his partner says and he has the perfect way to do so.

"Nat?"

"Да?" Natasha says as she and Clint exit the training center, heading for the cafeteria. At least Clint knows that word from simply living with Nat for years. 'Да' means 'yes'.

"Would you teach me Russian?"

"Что? I mean, what?"

As they get their food and head over to their regular seats, Clint begins to explain, "Well, I've just noticed how much you say in Russian, and, well, I guess I just want to know what you're saying."

"Then ask. You don't need lessons to know what I'm saying," Natasha says, not meeting Clint's eyes as she begins to eat.

"Then I can't talk to you."

"We're talking right now, aren't we? I can speak English, Barton."

Shifting nervously, Clint responds, "I know, I just… I thought you would like it if someone could talk to you in Russian. I thought that, you know, it would make you feel at home."

Natasha finally meets Clint's eyes and graces him with a small smile, "I feel perfectly at home without people talking to me in my own language. Thank you for the thought though." Natasha proceeds to grab her food and head out of the cafeteria, probably heading to some meeting with Fury or Hill. Clint, scrambling to find a way to convince Natasha to teach him, races after her.

Finally having fallen into step beside his partner, Clint begins one final time, "Can you please teach me, Nat?"

Natasha stops and looks at her partner and shakes her head, "Нет. Мне очень жаль, Клинт.*" Then Natasha begins to walk away once more.

Never one to give up easily, Clint grabs his partner's hand and forces her to stop and face him. "See, that is exactly what I'm talking about. I want to know what you say and I don't want to have to ask you every time. I want to be able to _understand_ what you say and then to be able to respond in your language. Does that make any sense?"

"Да. Yes, Clint. I get that sometimes people want to understand each other better and I know that you think the only way to make me happy and really get to know me is to learn my language, but that's not the only way."

"Natasha, please."

Gently extracting her hand from Clint's, Natasha turns her back on her partner with only a "Может быть".

"What does that mean?" Clint shouts down the hallway.

Looking back at her partner with a smile, Natasha says, "It means 'maybe'."

It's the happiest Clint has felt in a while.

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The note on Clint's bed the next afternoon simply says: "Meet me at 0600 back in my room if you still want to learn Русский. That means Russian', by the way." Clint can hardly wait.

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"I almost thought you wouldn't come," Natasha says when he knocks on her door at 6:00 exactly.

"Of course I came, Nat. I'm not that fickle," Clint responds, entering the room and taking a seat in one of the chairs.

"Да, вы*," Natasha mutters under her breath.

"What was that?" Clint replies in his fakest attentive voice, knowing full well that whatever Natasha had said had been derogatory.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing," is Natasha's response and Clint's first Russian lesson begins.

Natasha starts with all the basics. Hello (Привет), good-bye (До свидания), please (Пожалуйста), thank you (Спасибо), and an apparently useful phrase that she won't tell Clint the meaning of (Вы не видели мою привлекательную, рыжую партнёршу?*). She's an interesting teacher. There are plenty of Russian comments that Clint knows for a fact he's not supposed to understand and he knows it takes a lot of self-control for her to not simply walk out on him a couple of times. He can't enunciate any of the words properly, never mind with the correct accent, but she sits down next to him and continues to work with him for hours on end.

Slowly but surely, what started out as a one-time thing became a once-in-a-while thing, then a weekly occurrence, until everyday, whenever they could find a moment, they found themselves practicing Russian. It wasn't easy and Clint, contrary to Natasha's belief, worked at it every night before he went to bed for half an hour. After months of hard work, Clint can hold a whole 30-second conversation with Natasha, consisting of "hello", "what's your name?", and "I'm doing well". Clint didn't know Natasha could be that proud of anyone.

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After two years of lessons, Clint is finally able to start slipping in little Russian words and sentences into his conversations with Natasha. He calls her "сладкая птица" which means "sweet bird" and he figures that she probably despises the name, but it's his own little name for her and it _is_ in Russian, so while Natasha probably wants to complain about it, she never does. She helps him start writing out small words in Russian and a year later Clint can read the simple books meant to help children learn how to read. It becomes a full-time hobby: learning Russian and learning about Natasha through it. After four years of lessons, Clint can tell anyone Natasha's favorite places in Russia, what foods she would eat, what traditions she took part in, he can even sing a couple of the songs that he always loved to hear Natasha sing (though he still insists that she is the one who sings because her voice just flows over the words better).

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Four years, two months, a week, and 6 days after Clint started to learn Russian, he gets a call from Natasha after he had watched a man named Thor try to pull a hammer out of the ground and misunderstands her when she asks him what his name is (he usually recognizes that question, honestly) and thinks she has said "А ты меня любишь?" which is a completely different question. He answers "yes", still believing that she has just asked him if he loves her. He's grateful that her plane is 16 minutes late so he doesn't have to tell her what he thought he said. He's extremely grateful, truth be told.

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Three months later, a god named Loki comes and turns Clint's heart into something that is not his own and Clint shows him everything that his mind holds. So when an Asgardian is escorted to his new prison muttering "Во всём виноваты мстители!*" no one is quite sure what he is saying.

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Two years later, when Natasha is caught in a collapsing building, she shouts "Помогите!" instead of "help!" like she normally would have. Clint is proud both when he saves his fiancé's life and when he gets to tell her that he understood what she had said. She's not quite sure if she believes him.

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Five years later, when Clint buries his wife after a mission goes wrong her grave reads: "Она научила меня русскому."

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Twenty years later, Anastasia Barton explains to her husband why her mother's grave reads: "She taught me Russian."

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Index thing:

*(In order)

"What a mess!"

"No. I'm sorry, Clint." (That would be how Russians write his name in their alphabet, but it sounds the same.)

"Yes, you are."

"Have you seen my attractive, red-haired partner?"

"This is all the Avenger's fault!"

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**Author's Note: Whew! I'm very happy with how this turned out and I hope you liked it too. For anyone wondering, the Russian words on the picture for this story say: Because when you speak of home I fall in love with you, I fall in love with you hard. It's just something I came up with in a matter of a minute. I hope you liked the story and I would be thrilled if you would review. (In the immortal words of Rapunzel in Tangled: "And it's my birthday..." because it is and reviews are the best presents ever! )**

** Have a fabulous day!**

** -When In Doubt, Smile**


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